After years of fights over mask mandates, why do some states now want to ban face coverings? [View all]

Americans can’t seem to stop fighting about masks. After years of intense debate over mask mandates, the argument has now flipped entirely to become about whether certain face coverings should be banned.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week that she is considering banning face masks on New York City subways over concerns that the coverings obscure the identities of people committing antisemitic acts. New York City Mayor Eric Adams supports the idea, arguing that “cowards cover their faces.”

“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said. “On a subway, people should not be able to hide behind a mask to commit crimes.”

Hochul’s statement came a few days after a video spread online of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, some of them masked, crowded into a subway car while one man instructed all Zionists — a term for people who support the existence of a Jewish state — to exit the train.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/after-years-of-fights-over-mask-mandates-why-do-some-states-now-want-to-ban-face-coverings-100032488.html